


Truth Lives in the Small Hours

by houseofthestars



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: A very late night game of truth, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route, M/M, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Smoking, Support Conversation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21607126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/houseofthestars/pseuds/houseofthestars
Summary: “What are you even doing up this late?” Hubert asks, suddenly.“I, ah. I don’t really know,” Ferdinand admits. “I meant to retire hours ago but kept procrastinating with menial tasks. I thought a walk might clear my head, tire me out a little. And then I bumped into you. What about you?”“Something like that,” Hubert says, without elaborating.“Perhaps it is right that we talk like this, right now,” Ferdinand says. “There is a saying in Dagda, I believe, that truth lives in the small hours. It’s a sort of covenant, isn’t it, this darkness? Perhaps rather than continuing our assumptions of one another, we might get to make acquaintance anew.”
Relationships: Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra
Comments: 31
Kudos: 237





	Truth Lives in the Small Hours

**Author's Note:**

> CW for smoking. A sort of B+ support conversation, I guess.

It’s far later than it has any right to be and Ferdinand knows it. The lamps in the knights hall have gone weak and dull, their oil dwindling away, but he’s still buffing a pair of braces with wire wool, trying to get some shine back on them with little success. The Professor had been here earlier, training again, but Ferdinand had outlasted even them, shrugging off their admonishment to get some sleep with a sheepish smile. He’s not tired, not really; his eyes itch a little, but maybe that’s the dying lamplight.

He sighs, puts the equipment and polish away. He supposes he can head to bed now that he has packed up. But as he leaves he finds himself turning away from the direction of the dormitories. The further away from the main parts of the monastery the darker it gets, until the gardens around the pavilions are barely lit at all. It’s… surprisingly peaceful, really. He should do this more often.

Something tickles his nose and he sniffs. He can smell smoke, close by, but there’s no sign of a fire. He steps forward carefully, still looking for the source, but it’s not until a small light flares in the dark that he sees it, an orange spark that burns and recedes.

“Someone there?” He says, hesitant, and the spark stills, disappears, and then Ferdinand starts as a fire spell flares to life in the palm of someone’s hand. Its light catches odd angles and edges that don’t seem to make up a complete whole, until it moves closer and catches the lines of their face, thin and sharp.

“Oh. Hubert. You’re up late.” A flame-lit eyebrow twitches before the light disappears, pulling them both back into darkness.

“I suppose I am,” is the reply. “I won’t trouble you any longer, von Aegir. Goodnight.”

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Ferdinand says. “I didn’t mean to bother you from… what it is that you’re doing. Don’t leave on my account, I was just passing through.”

A pause, and then, “Fine. It seems you have me over a barrel anyway. I suppose it is too much to ask that you... do not disclose this to Lady Edelgard.”

“Disclose what?” Ferdinand says, frowning, and then suddenly the smell of smoke, the flare of an orange spark in the night, click together in Ferdinand’s head like matching puzzle pieces. “Hubert, are you  _ smoking _ ?”

Hubert hisses “Did I say nothing of discretion, you living foghorn?” Which is enough to make Ferdinand start laughing. His eyes are slowly readjusting to the dark, now, and he can make out where Hubert is sitting on a low wall, legs sprawled in front of him, his cloak unclipped and folded as an impromptu layer between him and the stone. In his dark clothes he’s barely a smudge against the night, but Ferdinand catches the movement of a ungloved thumb flicking ash to the ground.

“Well well. Hardly a habit befitting a noble and an officer, Lord von Vestra. I would have thought better of you.”

Hubert snorts derisively. “Presumption of my character is a lazy and careless mistake,” he says, then takes another drag. The cigarette is pinched between the middle of two fingers and he holds them close to his face when he breathes in, as if he is about to tell a secret. 

“So it would seem. First I find you directly disobeying Lady Edelgard’s orders, the next here you are. How her nose would wrinkle if she knew, I’m sure.”

“I tend to keep the things I do that might cause such a nose wrinkling to the small hours,” Hubert says. He sighs, and a thin puff of smoke comes out with it. “It is a rather infrequent habit, if you really must know, you merely caught me at a moment of… necessity. Are you quite done? Or can I expect a talking to in the morning?”

“Oh, stop fretting. I won’t tattletale on you. Honestly, it's ...” Ferdinand pauses, trying to frame his thoughts. He lands on: “It’s somewhat reassuring.”

“Reassuring? If your idea is that you can dangle this over me for the rest of the war in some childish game, best to forget that immediately. This is… inconvenient, but largely inconsequential. Compared to other events you have witnessed.”

“No, no,” Ferdinand says quickly. “I am true to my word, I will not tell Edelgard about this. Just as I did not tell her about the letter, if you recall.” 

Hubert hums, but doesn’t disagree.

“I just mean… I feel I have learned some truth about you that others might not know. Something to further enrich my understanding.”

Hubert makes a dismissive  _ psh _ and then flicks the cigarette butt to the ground and grinds it flat with the toe of his boot. “You think you have me all figured out, then? As I said: lazy and careless.”

“I would not say I entirely have the measure of you, but I believe I have learned a jot or two over the years,” Ferdinand says defensively. “However much you may accuse me of a lack of perception.”

“Hmm,” is all Hubert says, and then, to Ferdinand’s surprise, pats the space of wall next to himself in an invitation. 

“You would have me join you? Is this a trap?” Ferdinand says, suspiciously.

“It’s your choice,” says Hubert. “Is it dangerous or not? Might I have an ulterior motive? You are the one who presumes to know the answer.”

“You think you’re terribly funny, don’t you.”

“Another wrong guess.”

Ferdinand joins him anyway. It’s a little hard to judge the distance to the wall, even with his eyes fully adjusted to the dark, and he sits abruptly, swaying briefly into Hubert’s side with an apology before adjusting. When he’s settled Hubert snaps another flame into life between them, lets it sit on his fingers the way the cigarette had before. The light catches his face more clearly now that Ferdinand is closer. He looks a little tired, but then it is late.

“Well?” Hubert says.

“Well what?” Ferdinand says, frowning.

“If you are so sure of me, let’s hear it.”

“Well. It’s not like I am compiling a list,” Ferdinand says, suddenly feeling rather flustered. “All I am saying is—”

“That you have made an estimation of my character coloured by your pathetic childhood attempts to one-up her Majesty and your current need to, as I believe the saying goes, swing your dick around? That you cannot comprehend that someone whose methods do not match your own can achieve better results, so you would brand them nefarious?”

“Well now just hold on a second,” Ferdinand says indignantly, standing back up. “You would accuse me of forming an incorrect opinion of you based on my own biases and then come out with all that? I never thought I would have to accuse you of hypocrisy. If mudslinging is all you wanted, I’ll bid you goodnight.”

Hubert catches his sleeve.“No, I… wait. I apologise.”

Ferdinand blinks. “You do?”

“Yes. I’m sorry. You may still leave if you wish, but…” Hubert’s words trail off. He braces his elbows on his knees, looks down at the ground. “I don’t know. It’s been a long night.” 

Ferdinand, despite himself, sits back down, surprised at the admission. It surely must have been a long night to extract both an apology and an admission of doubt from Hubert von Vestra. It’s unsettling and Ferdinand isn’t sure he cares for it.

“I can’t believe you would use such a vulgar turn of phrase,” Ferdinand says, but there’s not much heat in it.

“What are you even doing up this late?” Hubert asks, suddenly.

“I, ah. I don’t really know,” Ferdinand admits. “I meant to retire hours ago but kept procrastinating with menial tasks. I thought a walk might clear my head, tire me out a little. And then I bumped into you. What about you?”

“Something like that,” Hubert says, without elaborating.

“Perhaps it is right that we talk like this, right now,” Ferdinand says. “There is a saying in Dagda, I believe, that truth lives in the small hours. It’s a sort of covenant, isn’t it, this darkness? Perhaps rather than continuing our assumptions of one another, we might get to make acquaintance anew.”

Hubert lifts his head to look at him. Ferdinand shrugs.

“It is just a thought. If you wish me to stay, we might as well have something to talk about that isn’t an argument.”

“Very well,” Hubert says, after a moment. “Though I make no promises my opinion of you will change.”

“Understood. Perhaps we might ask one another some questions to get to know one another better. You can go first, if you’d like.”

Hubert is still looking at him, pale eyes with flame reflected in them moving carefully over Ferdinand’s face then back to his own eyes. Eventually, he says, “What are your feelings regarding your father, Duke Aegir?”

Ferdinand blinks, pulling back, the words stinging as they hit. “No punches pulled, eh? I was expecting ‘what are your hobbies’, or ‘what’s your favourite food’, or ‘who was your first kiss’—”

“I know you like horse riding and expensive tea. And I don’t care about food. Are you going to answer?”

“If you’re just asking me so you can use it as evidence, or  _ leverage _ , against me later, then no. That wasn’t the point of it.”

“Awful lot of rules, suddenly. Fine. More vague, then; tell me something about your family. Whatever you care to.”

“Hm.” Ferdinand thinks, and then his fingers brush against his own hair, sparking inspiration. “I have three younger sisters. I don’t see them much, not since I joined the Academy, really. I think one of them married into House Bergliez last year, and another into House Nuvelle. Not sure about Clara, maybe she moved away. Not a lot of letter writing between the von Aegirs, as you can probably understand. They all wore their hair long like this, too. I suppose it reminds me of them, in a way.”

Hubert looks surprised at this, and then says carefully, “Clara von Aegir is still in the Empire. She married a second son of House Ochs earlier this year and they opened a bakery.”

“Oh,” Ferdinand says, trying not to feel hurt. It’s better for her not to be in touch, really. Safer. “Well. Good for her, I suppose. And good to know the surveillance on my family is good for something. I should have asked earlier.”

“It is your turn, I believe,” says Hubert, and there’s something in his voice that’s almost another apology, but not quite.

“Ah, yes. Who was your first kiss?”

Hubert makes a strangled sound. “This sort of childish nonsense—”

“Oh, come on, Hubert. It’s just me, you and three o’clock in the morning.”

“You are a frivolous idiot.”

“And you are dodging the question.”

“Ask me something else. Something relevant,” Hubert insists. 

“Ugh, fine. Tell me... something Edelgard believes in that you do not.”

Hubert stiffens, but goes silent as he gives this thought. The tiny flame on his fingers dims as his concentration is focused elsewhere. “Just because we stride along the same path together,” he says eventually, “it does not mean we think as one. As you should know by now.”

“I do, but… tell me something anyway.”

“Fine. Her Majesty is much more enthusiastic regarding the potential development of group air travel than I am. She wishes to look into ways to adapt our flying mounts while I believe it is a waste of time.”

“Oh that hardly counts, you’re dodging. But you’ve intrigued me now, why in the world not? I remember that briefing, it sounded perfectly exciting.”

“I… would prefer to stay at ground level. From a personal perspective.”

Ferdinand stares at him for a moment, and then his face breaks out into a grin. “Oh, Hubert, do you have a fear of heights?”

“It is a  _ strong personal preference to remain— _ ”

But Ferdinand is already laughing, and the flame on Hubert’s finger flares a little as the irritation shows on his face, but Ferdinand doesn’t stop.

“You’re going to wake someone up if you’re not careful, you cretin.”

“I really am learning so much about you tonight. First the cigarettes, now this. How wonderful. Okay, it’s your turn.”

Hubert gives another long, searching look over Ferdinand’s face, and this time, Ferdinand feels a heat in his cheeks that isn’t from the fire magic.

“Why did you not tell Lady Edelgard about the letter?” Hubert says, just before the moment drags into discomfort. “It was… a clear opportunity for one-upmanship. Idiotic as it would have been to do so.”

Ferdinand was sort of hoping Hubert wasn’t going to ask that. He sighs. “I thought about it,” he says, eventually. “Especially after how dismissive you were of my own abilities. I was angry, I believed you should face consequences for your decisions the same as anyone else. But... the deed was already done. It would have caused needless friction between you and Edelgard at a time when we needed clear decisive action. I still don’t agree with what you did, but as you say, you and Edelgard walk the same path, in whatever manner that is. To attempt to discredit it when it would have changed nothing would be irresponsible. But know if a similar situation arises, I will continue to make my disagreement known to the both of you, openly and honestly.”

Hubert takes a while to absorb all this. “Impressive how you can be both so pragmatic and so idealistic within the same breath,” he says slowly.

“Thank you. I think?”

Hubert laughs a little. “Yes, I suppose it is a compliment. Of a sort.” He sighs. “As it is, she found out anyway. We’ve had a... discussion regarding it tonight. All will be well in time, especially since we are already much closer to our goal thanks to its delivery.”

“Oh. I’m… sorry.”

Hubert waves a hand. “We have overcome greater obstacles in the past. Perhaps... I was a little hasty in this instance. But that is what I am for. To serve Lady Edelgard, to further her cause and to take the action she may not be able to. In whatever way necessary. And you are there for that idealistic claptrap that spews out of your mouth that sometimes, actually, rings rather true.”

“I think that may be a second compliment, Hubert, if a rather backhanded one. Mind you do not overexert yourself.”

Hubert laughs again, and it’s enjoyable to see amusement on his face without the usual contempt that pairs with it. Ferdinand realises Hubert is no longer just an inky, flame-angled shape - he is indigo-hued, his hair a little rumpled, his shirt collar undone at the neck. Ferdinand looks out to the distance and there’s the faintest streaks of pink on the horizon.

“It seems the covenant of darkness, as you call it, will soon be gone,” Hubert says. “Do you have any other questions?”

“Just one,” Ferdinand says. “I would ask... that you come by for tea some day this week. Perhaps we might yet learn more about one another.” He can’t help but flush red again when he says this, and he sees the twitch of Hubert’s eyebrows when he notices too.

“I’m not really a tea drinker,” he says, carefully. 

“Whatever you prefer, then.”

Hubert nods. “Very well, I accept your invitation. But for now, we should probably at least attempt to sleep before the day begins anew.” He stands, and then holds a hand out to Ferdinand to pull him upright. As he stands, they knock together again, knees bumping against knees, and Hubert almost stumbles until his hand tightens on Ferdinand’s own to steady them both. The moment hangs like dew on a spiderweb, and then Hubert lets go, and they both step apart.

“Well. Goodnight then, Hubert,” Ferdinand says, swallowing.

“Goodnight, Ferdinand,” Hubert says.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on twitter at @hausofthestars!


End file.
